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Friday, January 25, 2013

Guest Post: Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bottom Cheesecake

Happy day after National Peanut Butter Day! In retrospect, I should have shared this post yesterday but it wasn't until it was too late that we realized this day even existed. How in the world my peanut butter loving husband missed the "celebration" of his favorite food beats me!

Regardless, here's a recipe in honor of that special day. It's a guest post by my husband and there's both photo documentation and me vouching for the fact that he indeed made this cake ALL BY HIMSELF. Yes, even the decoration of the cake!

Chocolate chips and peanut butter chips and Reese cups, oh my!

One of my Facebook fans asked if he cleaned up his own mess, too. And the answer is YES! In fact, my husband is so sweet he often cleans up after me while I'm cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Am I a lucky gal or what? Sorry ladies, he's taken ;).

I followed the original directions to the ganache which yielded wayyy more
drizzle than was needed. And hey, you can't let good ganache go to waste!

Here's Chris' post and review. He's pretty excited to be in charge of desserts now because it means he gets to make what HE likes. Which...of course is all things peanut butter and chocolate!

My two favorite flavors are: peanut butter and chocolate. Combine them - and it becomes exponentially better! That's also what makes Reese's my favorite candy. Combine Reese's with chocolate brownies, peanut butter cheesecake - that's what I call a dessert! I found this recipe and decided to venture into baking some of my favorite desserts since at some point Christine might get sick of making them! I made this for our friend's Christmas get-together. There was a dessert competition and I won "Best Presentation"! Everyone also agreed that it was very good tasting as well. It was quite a bit of work but it was worth it!

For those that are wondering, you don't actually want to know how many calories are in this thing. Just close your eyes, eat, and ENJOY! But then again, did you REALLY think it would be remotely healthy given the name and ingredients? Yeah didn't think so.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bottom Cheesecake

IngredientsFor the Brownie Crust

6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted + Extra for greasing

1-¼ cup Sugar

1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

2 whole Eggs

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Flour

⅓ cups Unsweetened Cocoa

½ teaspoons Baking Powder

½ teaspoons Salt

1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup Peanut Butter Chips

6 whole Peanut Butter Cups, Cut Into Quarters

For the Cheesecake Filling

2 pounds Cream Cheese, Softened

5 whole Eggs, Room Temperature

1-½ cup Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed

1 cup Smooth Peanut Butter

½ cups Whipping Cream

1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract

For the Decoration

1/4 cups Whipping Cream

1/2 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup Peanut Butter Chips

7 Peanut Butter Cups, Cut In Half

Directions
For the Brownie Crust:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a deep 9-inch Springform pan with extra butter. (We use this one from Wilton. It is 9" diameter and nearly 3" tall. If you use one any smaller, you'll need to reduce the cheesecake filling or it will overflow! It's a tight fit to begin with...ours barely fit!)

Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with spoon or wire whisk. Add eggs; stir until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; blend well. Spread in prepared pan.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from side of pan. Meanwhile make cheesecake layer (see step #1 below).

Beat cream cheese in bowl of electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sugar, peanut butter and cream; mix until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour filling into prepared crust.

Double-wrap Springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent water seeping in. To do this, cut a large square of foil and place the pan in the center. Wrap the foil up the sides so that the seam of the pan bottom and springform side is covered. Leave the top uncovered. Place Springform pan into a larger baking pan. Pour hot water into the larger pan so that the water comes 1 inch up the sides of the Springform pan.

Bake at 325 degrees 1-1/2 hours, or until firm and lightly browned.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for one hour. Run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan somewhat. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before decorating. I tend to make cheesecakes a day ahead to let things set.

Remove cake from pan and put on a pretty plate.

Chris' Cheesecake tip: to get the cake off you just need to heat up the bottom of the pan a bit and the cake should come off easily. I remove the sides, then hold the pan over a burner on my stove – set to LOW – for about 15 or so seconds. Then run a long cake spatula under the cake and it should slip easily off the pan. Just be careful – the bottom of the cake is now very slippery.

Jonathan - A springform pan is a 2-piece baking pan that has a removable side and bottom. A fastener on the side uses tension (hence "spring") to hold everything together. I use and recommend this pan.

Where might I get one. I live in Dardanelle Arkansas. And we dont have any of those that I have seen around here. But I really want to try this recipe out. I love any kind of baking and im good at it too.

Jonathan - It's a fairly common baking pan. You can order it from Amazon using the link I provided above and in the recipe directions. Locally, you can probably find it somewhere like a Walmart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michael's, etc.

Good luck and let me know how it goes! An experienced baker like yourself should have no problems and I'd love if you shared your pic on my facebook page or email!

Faith - Yes you can use a 10" pan but will need to reduce the baking time since your cake will be thinner. Since I haven't tried this myself, I can't say how long, though.

Brenda - Great idea! I have a great truffle recipe here if you need one: http://christineskitchenchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/12/assorted-truffles.html

Bev - He does but you're about a month too late as his brother just got married ;). I posted a picture in my Hawaii post in February.

Karen - Yes the purpose of the foil is to keep the water from seeping into the pan. Cover with foil up to the top edge of the springform only.

Christina - A fan wrote and said that they substituted boxed gluten free brownie mix.

Tonya - Your baking soda/powder just might have been fresher than mine and I found that as it cools it sinks a bit.

Diann - Sorry but I had to disable the copy function on my blog due to some dishonest people saving my photos and claiming them as their own. I suggest you use the "Print Friendly" option to print the recipes. Scroll down to the bottom of the recipe and there's a green button that you can click. You can delete whatever content you don't want to print and then either save as a PDF, print, or email it.

Mmm brains/Erika - I'm sorry but I think you are attacking the wrong person here. If you look at my citation you'll see I clearly put that you are the source (we did make minor modifications to your recipe, however, and noted as such). The photo used by Incredible Recipes is my own.

Cool whip is a chemical version of real whipping cream and real whipping cream is sweetened liquid cream that has had a lot of air beaten into it. When it bakes, it melts back into liquid but you have less of it and is sweeter.

Made this last night for my hubby's birthday today and I was really nervous about how it would turn out but it turned out great! Thank you so much for the great instructions, I followed them to a T and it turned out perfect!!

I would think that if you bake the brownie first and then pour the cheesecake on top and cook it, that the brownie part would be dry and maybe even burnt???? help?? could I just halfway bake the brownie part or what? how do you keep it from burning and how do you kee the chescake part from caving into the chocolate, and does the spring form pan go around the brownie part and the cheesecake part ? so confused lol

I would think that if you bake the brownie first and then pour the cheesecake on top and cook it, that the brownie part would be dry and maybe even burnt???? help?? could I just halfway bake the brownie part or what? how do you keep it from burning and how do you kee the chescake part from caving into the chocolate, and does the spring form pan go around the brownie part and the cheesecake part ? so confused lol

Just follow the directions. It'll work out, otherwise they wouldn't have published this recipe! lol! You put the brownie in the bottom of the greased springform pan. Bake it. Add the chips and cheesecake and bake it. It doesn't cave, it doesn't burn.

Emily - Sorry for the delay in response. Just do the double bake as written in the directions...it all works out! The springform does go around everything :).

Lara - Yeah Amazon won't let me link to a particular size but if you look closely, there's a 9" version and that's what we have! Somehow it fits but I've heard from readers that 10" works fine and gives some more wiggle room. Just remember to reduce your baking time!

I've made this a few times now. Here's a great tip for an easy way to get off pan without having to heat........after I butter the pan....I put sugar in there to coat it and dump the excess. I never flour a pan...just sugar it! About to make another 10 -in one for a pig pickin this Saturday. Love this recipe and the blog!

Not to be a downer, but you can still copy your images off of this site...you may want to talk to whoever disabled that for you, because you can still save the images on your computer..I tried it because I wanted to show my friends what I was going to make for Father's Day, and then read your posts here...But it looks dilicious and can't wait to try it this weekend!

Making this for my fiances birthday right now. It looks so good already! I can't wait to see how it turns out. Thank you sooo much for the helpful instructions and recipe!(: will definitely be checking back for some more! Great job!(:

Hi Patricia. Thanks for stopping by! To wrap the pan in foil you simply cut a large piece of foil from the roll then place the pan in the center of the foil. Pull the edges up and fold the foil so that it stays in place. The top remains uncovered. Basically you're just making sure that the seam where the springform pan side connects to the bottom is covered and prevents leaking of water into the pan. Hope this helps and let me know how it turns out!!

oh my goodness I can't wait to make this this weekend! :) Thank you for sharing and having such specific directions that clearly describe exactly how and what to do! Peanut Butter and chocolate...can't go wrong with that. My whole family thanks you!

Anonymous - I used the Reese's peanut butter chips found in my local Kroger. But here's a link to it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0005ZXBEM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0005ZXBEM&linkCode=as2&tag=chrisskitchch-20

Wayne - Hope it tasted as good as you'd hope! Feel free to send me your photo and I'll include it on our fan page!

I will try to make this in a couple of days for my husbands birthday. Fingers crossed that it turns out well. No guarantee he will give me the chance to try a piece though, it looks delicious. Normally with stuff he likes, he grabs a fork and runs to another room with it. How that man is a scrawny bean pole is beyond me.

LOL! I think that if you put the peanut butter cups on facing out next time their shape will lend to the curvature of the cake much better and you may even be able to get in at least one more. As if you need it! I can't WAIT to try this! I think I gained 5 pounds just looking at the photo!!! LOL Thanks for sharing! :-D

When you decrease one ingredient in a recipe,you must decrease everything else equally! My 'drizzle' didn't drizzle because I did not read the original recipe and you changed the amount of whipping cream in the decoration drizzle recipe and I followed that. It was more like frosting that, when cooled, turned into a hard chocolate block.

I just finished this pie tonight and my boyfriend and I love it!! I followed the recipe exactly, using a boxed brownie mix to save a little time, and it came out pure perfection. Thank you so much, we have a new family favorite!

Making this with my 4 year old daughter as we speak. Definitely the most involved baking I've ever done - everything seems to be going well though *knocks on wood*. Just heating some water before it goes in the oven again!